Fastned, a Dutch company building a network of 200 electric-vehicle charging stations along highways in the Netherlands, has selected Switzerland-based ABB to supply the chargers for the network.

The devices can charge an EV's battery in 15 to 20 minutes, ABB said Monday, and will be equipped to handle a variety of EVs. "This is critical to maintain compatibility between rapidly evolving cars and chargers in the years to come," the company said in a statement.

The first chargers will be delivered in September, and Fastned plans to have its charging stations built by 2015, ABB said.

Electric vehicles such as Tesla Motors' critically acclaimed Model S have only just begun arriving on the market, but some entrepreneurs see charging stations as a business opportunity today. Tesla is building its coast-to-coast Supercharger network in the United States, for example, and a company called Clever is building a charging network in Denmark. Charging an EV takes longer than filling a gas tank, though high-power chargers can speed the process.

Fastned plans to situate charging stations so that electric vehicle drivers will never be more than 50km (31 miles) away from one. The stations' roofs will be covered with photovoltaic cells for a bit of an electricity boost.

The planned Fastned electric-vehicle charging station network in the Netherlands.
ABB

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Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and covers browsers, Web development, digital photography and new technology. In the past he has been CNET's beat reporter for Google, Yahoo, Linux, open-source software, servers and supercomputers. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces.
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